If you had known…in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Luke 19:42.

The Lord who created you, O Israel, says, Don’t be afraid, for I have ransomed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine. Isaiah 43:1 TLB.

I loved this from You Are The Beloved by Henri Nouwen: “The mystery of God’s love is not that our pain is taken away, but that God first wants to share that pain with us. Out of this divine solidarity comes new life. Jesus’ being moved in the center of His being by human pain is indeed a movement toward new life. God is our God, the God of the living. In the divine womb of God, life is always born again…The truly good news is that God is not a distant God, a God to be feared and avoided, a God of revenge, but a God who is moved by our pains and participates in the fullness of the human struggle.”

I think that’s why Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, chose Gomer, a promiscuous woman to be the wife of Hosea. God didn’t ridicule her as would we. Hosea didn’t ridicule her. He loved her. And in our chapter, Hosea 2, Israel is Gomer and Creator God is Hosea. Israel turned her back on God, who was her provider, to worship Baal. “She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’ She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold – which they used for Baal. Therefore I will take away My grain when it ripens, and My new wine when it is ready. I will take back My wool and My linen, intended to cover her naked body.” v. 7-9. I will go back to my husband…for then I was better off than now…sounds just like the prodigal son returning to the Father who loved him and with whom he was better off. And even though God let Israel turn away to her lovers, and even though Israel would be punished and taken to captivity, which Israel, by her actions, wanted, v. 10-13, yet, our God is faithful. He will not leave us in that awful state. “In that day,” declares the Lord, “you will call Me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call Me ‘my master.’ I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety. I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord. In that day I will respond,” declares the Lord – “I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth; and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. I will plant her for Myself in the land; I will show My love to the one I called ‘Not My loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not My people,’ ‘You are My people’; and they will say, ‘You are My God.’” v. 16-23.

Betrothed…bound to Creator God forever…in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion…in faithfulness…these are God’s provision for us in His great love for us. We will find that in no other. Only Creator God provides so lavishly. Will you turn to Him? Will we? Will the nations? That is humanity’s only hope. This chapter shows us that all nations, just like Israel, turn away to one another for help instead of turning to Creator God. And this chapter shows us that Creator God will redeem us. We are Gomer. We are the prodigal son. And God will gather us and restore what was broken…in HIs righteousness and justice, in His love and compassion…in His faithfulness!